The present invention relates to a catheter and probe, and particularly to a catheter and probe for insertion into a body cavity in order to properly locate an applicator inserted into an adjacent body cavity. The invention is especially useful with applicators inserted into a patient's rectum for applying a hyperthermia treatment to the prostate, and is therefore described below with respect to this application.
Hyperthermia is a recognized technique for various therapeutic treatments by the application of heat. One known type of applicator includes a microwave antenna which is inserted into the patient to heat the prostate. An improved applicator of this type is described in our companion application No. 07/046,195 filed the same date as this application. A problem involved in the use of such applicators, however, is to precisely locate the microwave antenna so as to maximize the effectiveness of the hyperthermia treatment. Another problem is to precisely measure the temperature at the treated site.
An object of the present invention is to provide a catheter and also a probe particularly useful for precisely locating a heating applicator inserted into a body cavity, and also for precisely measuring the temperature at the treated site. The catheter and probe of the present application are particularly useful with the microwave heating applicator described in the above-cited companion application.